nstockbridge's blog

Today the class began collecting data for our project about the leaf-miner Stigmella Multispicata potentially moving hosts to new types of Elm. We started by breaking up into three groups of two with each pair having ten trees and ten leaves on each tree to locate and observe. In theory the methods for collecting the data was pretty straight forward to follow but once we actually got into the field my group started having issues right away. After getting the map situated on the phone we found the first two trees on our list which ended up being located in a completely blocked off construction zone. Since we couldn't get to them we decided to move down the list and were able to find three other sites pretty smoothily until about the sixth site with the trees being located decently away from eachother and the phone running the map the entire time the battery was getting too low to use. With the battery about to die we decided to head back to the classroom to mark the rest of our locations on a hard copy of the map. Once we got back to class and were finishing up the map it started to rain pretty heavily which put the data collection on hold until next class with hopefully better weather.

If the world was going to lose all of its domestic dogs except for one breed I would choose the closest decendant to the wolf. There is no concrete answer on the closest single breed but the general consensus from the internet would be a breed from the Spitz Dog family which originated in the Arctic Circle and were known to have bred directly with some types of wolves. You would want a close descendant from the wolf because that is originally how all domesticated dogs were even created. So by starting at the top of the genetic chain again you would eventually be able to create every domesticated dog breed over again. On the flip side if you started with a dog that was already a lot closer to the bottom of the genetic pool you wouldn't get as much of a variation of breeds that the world has now. Picking any of the Spitz breeds would be a good choice to carry on the domestication of dogs but to pick one specifically I would go with the Akita Inu from the Spitz family. They are a medium sized dog that can be extremely loyal and protective as well as being able to assist hunting trips for survival. The Akita Inu is a top choice because they are a strong dog with minimal genetic problems that could cause issue in restarting the dog population.

This week the class started working on proposal projects about the leaf miner Stigmella Multispicata taking root in a new host the American Elm. Our group is going to be focusing the research on the symmetry of leaves with careful measurements. On top of checking in the known host Siberian Elms and the new host America Elms we will be checking a few branches from all 15 types of elm on campus. We believe this can give us insight into why the leaf miner picks the leaves it does and a potential correlation for future host it may invade with similar leaf structures.

To get a manuscript published on World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology they give you a long list of guidelines your paper needs to follow. The first thing they focus on is being positive all authors and any other authorities all approve of the manuscript going in for review with no objections. The rest of the guidline shows you what kind of order they would want the paper to be in with what kind of topics and specific file sizes.

Both figures came out very similar that I think either will get the same point across but some of the differences I observed were having the photos in a different order in the figure. Three of the photos are also being viewed from an upside down perspective with two of them missing arrows to direct you to the affected leaf. The picture with the ruler for scale is measuring a different section of the leaf giving a different reading. The photos are also taken from a different zoom level being further out for the two pictures of the leaf and a more zoomed in level of the map and about even level for the full plant. The figure itself has spaces between each photo and a slightly different size text label in each corner.

-Same four types of photos the plant, the leaf, the leaf with a scale and the map but in a different order.
-Three photos are in an upside down view.
-Recreation does not have any arrows.
-The ruler scale is measuring two different parts of the leaf.
-The zoom level of the pictures are further out for the leaf closer for the map and equal for the full plant
-Has spaces between the pictures in the figure.
-Map view only shows the pond.
-Different text size for the labels in each corner of the picture.

Today I pulled into campus driving 25mph listening to metallica until I arrived at the parking garage.
When I arrived at the parking garage I clicked the ticket button to give me my slip and raise the front gate.
Once gate was open I drove in and traveled up two levels higher in the garage before parking next to three other vehicles.
Once parked I finished my coffee turned the music and car off and gathered all my materials for class.
When I had all my stuff I started making my way out of the parking garage and towards the campus pond.
On the way to the pond I passed a few different groups of people students, faculty, campus police and a military member.
After I had finally reached the pond after about 5 minutes of walking I started to search for leaf miners to document for our class project.
I slowly walked around 3/4 of the pond checking all the plants and flowers and trees before I finally found a good single leaf example of the leaf miners.
After taking the pictures that I needed I proceeded to class to start making the figure.
I walked another 7 minutes from the pond up to Morrill building 3 room 311
Once in class I found my spot and started logging on and loading up the computer.
I then emailed all my new photos of the leaf miners to myself so I could open them online.
After getting all the pictures online I opened and used inkscape and gimp photo editing software to construct my figure.

Categories

-Driving
lines 1-4

-Walking
lines 5-10

-Class
lines 9+

Figure 1. Planet. Picture of stars in the background of the rings of Saturn. "Space Engine" flickr photo by Wake Up Freeman https://flickr.com/photos/wakeupmrfreeman/14242488763 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/eji.200323972

Today we had the task to find and study a leaf with an uncommon white rimmed trail throughout the leaf. The leaf itself is a serrated oval shape with the small stem sticking out the bottom. The leaf is approximately 15 cm long and 5 cm wide and only about a tick mark of the ruler wide with a darker green top fading to a lighter green color towards the stem. The white trail surrounds about 2/3 of the leaf starting slim and growing thicker as it goes on to an eventual small opening in the surface. It can not be wiped off which means that is must be atleast one layer under the surface of the plant.